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Monday 29th Dec - We left the home comforts to continue our travels, an emotional fair well at Rita's, especially as she is 90 next year, hope we see her again soon, and its always great to see Arturo and Rosanna.
Arriving in Padova Liam finally got to see snow - he was so excited about seeing snow for the first time, but when he saw it in the street he was disappointed see it dirty and not white, unfortunately it was a couple of days old. While out for a walk in the evening he enjoyed kicking at piles of snow on the roadside. A chilly 3ºC but it felt much colder. Padova is quite a trendy town with students drinking at bars.
Our hotel is well situated opposite the train station which is a relief when returning from our trips to Venice. And Liam's very happy as there is MacDonald's right next door. The hotel is quite comfortable with a large room, nice bathroom and breakfast, staff are helpful and we were able to extent our booking with no trouble.
Tuesday 30th & Wednesday 31st Dec - we traveled into Venice from Padova on the train that only took about 20 minutes. It was a good choice considering the cost of hotels in Venice at this time of the year.
Thursday 1st Jan 2015 - Spent the day in Padova today. Being new years day the town is reasonably quite, Rob & Liam both have a head cold. Our first stop was the "Scrovegni Chapel" this place has a fresco painted by Giotto completed in 1305 and considered one of the most important masterpieces of western art. Unfortunately you need to book to see this 3 days in advance (which I was aware) and you get 15 mins viewing time, it's probably just as good seeing a picture of it on the internet! I guess we can say that we saw the outside building. We continued down through the old part of town and came to a beautiful piazza - "Pratto Della Valle" it's the largest in Italy, with a large circular lake surrounded by 78 statues, who represent famous citizens of Padova (one being Galileo Galilie). It is on the site of an old roman arena that was demolished in the 16th century and the ruins were used to build the Cathedral of St Guistina which is at one end of the elliptical park. The Cathedral has an impressive open space inside with not many seats.
Liam enjoyed the park as there was still quite a lot of frozen snow about, he had fun trying to throw snow balls at Rob. Rob suggested for him to look for the biggest piece of ice he could find - next minute we hear this voice saying "how about this one" - there was Liam struggling to carry the biggest chunk of ice he could find then tossing it off the bridge for it to float off like an iceberg.
St Anthony's church was the next stop, a magnification church that is the site of his tomb. The patron saint of lost or stolen articles is the most popular saint among Catholics. Many people pilgrimage to this site to place their hand on the marble slab that covers his tomb and prayer. People leave photos and messages of loved ones pinned to boards around the tomb. Rob touched it but I'm not sure what prayer he said (probably asked for the lotto numbers). Once outside we asked Liam if he wanted to see another church or head back to the hotel? No surprise of the choice, in his words "these churches are getting boring". Culture and history tends to be a little wasted on kids.
Arriving in Padova Liam finally got to see snow - he was so excited about seeing snow for the first time, but when he saw it in the street he was disappointed see it dirty and not white, unfortunately it was a couple of days old. While out for a walk in the evening he enjoyed kicking at piles of snow on the roadside. A chilly 3ºC but it felt much colder. Padova is quite a trendy town with students drinking at bars.
Our hotel is well situated opposite the train station which is a relief when returning from our trips to Venice. And Liam's very happy as there is MacDonald's right next door. The hotel is quite comfortable with a large room, nice bathroom and breakfast, staff are helpful and we were able to extent our booking with no trouble.
Tuesday 30th & Wednesday 31st Dec - we traveled into Venice from Padova on the train that only took about 20 minutes. It was a good choice considering the cost of hotels in Venice at this time of the year.
Thursday 1st Jan 2015 - Spent the day in Padova today. Being new years day the town is reasonably quite, Rob & Liam both have a head cold. Our first stop was the "Scrovegni Chapel" this place has a fresco painted by Giotto completed in 1305 and considered one of the most important masterpieces of western art. Unfortunately you need to book to see this 3 days in advance (which I was aware) and you get 15 mins viewing time, it's probably just as good seeing a picture of it on the internet! I guess we can say that we saw the outside building. We continued down through the old part of town and came to a beautiful piazza - "Pratto Della Valle" it's the largest in Italy, with a large circular lake surrounded by 78 statues, who represent famous citizens of Padova (one being Galileo Galilie). It is on the site of an old roman arena that was demolished in the 16th century and the ruins were used to build the Cathedral of St Guistina which is at one end of the elliptical park. The Cathedral has an impressive open space inside with not many seats.
Liam enjoyed the park as there was still quite a lot of frozen snow about, he had fun trying to throw snow balls at Rob. Rob suggested for him to look for the biggest piece of ice he could find - next minute we hear this voice saying "how about this one" - there was Liam struggling to carry the biggest chunk of ice he could find then tossing it off the bridge for it to float off like an iceberg.
St Anthony's church was the next stop, a magnification church that is the site of his tomb. The patron saint of lost or stolen articles is the most popular saint among Catholics. Many people pilgrimage to this site to place their hand on the marble slab that covers his tomb and prayer. People leave photos and messages of loved ones pinned to boards around the tomb. Rob touched it but I'm not sure what prayer he said (probably asked for the lotto numbers). Once outside we asked Liam if he wanted to see another church or head back to the hotel? No surprise of the choice, in his words "these churches are getting boring". Culture and history tends to be a little wasted on kids.
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